THE STONE AGE.
Prehistoric ages of man—Use of metal unknown—First traces of
man—Weapons of flint, bone, &c.—Graves of the Stone
Age—Introduction of domestic animals—The cromlech or dolmen always
near the sea—Gallery or passage graves—The passage grave of
Karleby—Stone coffin graves—Sepulchral chambers—Objects of the
Stone Age.
We have now given accounts of the literature which contains the earliest
records of the people of the North. Let us pause and study for a while
its archæology, which will throw considerable light also on its
inhabitants and their customs.
It is now generally recognised by archæologists that all people who have
advanced to a certain degree of civilisation have passed through three
periods of development, which according to the material of which their
implements, weapons, and utensils were made, have been named the
_stone_, the _bronze_, and the _iron_ age. We have very abundant
evidence that the people of the North passed through these three stages,
and indeed had reached the iron age before they came within the ken of
history. Beginning with the stone age, let us see what we can learn of
the civilisation of the North from the various articles which were in
use during the three stages.
The finds in the North have been classified under the name “_grave_,”
“_bog_,” and “_earth_” _finds_; that is, objects found in graves, bogs,
or in the ground. In the latter case they are often hidden under stones,
in obedience to the injunctions of Odin. Those of the iron age are found
as far as 69° North latitude.
The custom of burying different objects with the dead, and also that of
throwing objects and weapons into springs or bogs, or of hiding them in
the ground, has helped in a most remarkable manner to give us an idea of
the industries and daily life of the people there at a remote period.
In the earliest age the use of metal was unknown, the weapons were made
of stone, horn, and bone,[110] and towards the close of this age pottery
was made.
The first traces of man in some parts of the present Scandinavia are the
_kjökkenmöddinger_ (kitchen refuse heaps), consisting of oyster and
mussel shells, bones of fish, birds, and mammals, such as the deer,
bear, boar, beaver, seal, ure-ox, wolf, fox, &c., &c., with remains of
clay vessels. Among and near these heaps of refuse are found a great
number of rude implements and weapons made of flint, bone, horn, and
broken flint chips, also fireplaces made of a few stones roughly put
together, thus showing that the inhabitants lived in a very primitive
state.
No graves of the earliest period of the stone age have thus far been
found in the North. Towards the latter part of this age we see a great
improvement in the making of weapons and tools; the latter were
beautifully polished, and graceful in form. Domestic animals had also
been introduced, as shown by the bones of cattle, horses, sheep, pigs,
and dogs, that have been found in the graves. Beads of amber and bone
were worn as ornaments. The graves of the stone age discovered in the
present Scandinavia and on the islands and shores of the Baltic may be
classified in four groups: the _cromlech_ or _dolmen_; the _passage_ or
_gallery graves_; the _free-standing stone coffins_; and the _stone
coffins covered by a mound_.[111]
The cromlechs consist of from three to five large stones standing
upright, and so placed as to form a ring, with a large block or boulder
on the top. These were intended for a single body, buried in a sitting
position, with flint implements and weapons. The walls of the chamber
were made by large stones, smooth inside, and the floor consisted of
sand or gravel. Certain marks on the tops of stones seem to indicate
that sacrifices to the dead were prevalent; holes about 2 inches in
width are found on the roofs of some cromlechs and passage graves. These
cromlechs always occur near the sea, seldom more than seven miles from
the coast. The other graves of the stone age are often found far inland,
but they are almost always near a lake or river having connection with
the sea.
[Illustration:
Fig. 2.—Cromlech near Haga, Bohuslän.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 3.—Cromlech (stendös) with concave recesses on the roof-stone,
near Fasmorup, in Skåne.
]
The cromlechs which appear to be the latest graves of this age have a
much wider distribution than the other forms; they are found in nearly
all the provinces where the older forms of graves occur. Most of them
were in or on the top of a mound, which almost always had the roof, and
in most cases part of the wall, uncovered. The mound, which is generally
round, sometimes oblong, is surrounded at its base by stones often very
large; when this was oblong, the grave was nearer the one end than the
other.
[Illustration:
Fig. 4.—One of three oblong cromlechs, distance between each about 120
feet, length 52 feet, and width 20 feet, position north and south,
Lille Rorbœk, Zeeland. The central one had two stone-built chambers,
both with the entrance from the east. The southern burial chamber is
now destroyed, while the northern is completely preserved. It is 5½
feet long, and 3 feet wide, and has four walls of stone, three of
which support a stone roof.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 5.—Sepulchral chamber covered with a mound, Kallundborg, Zeeland;
height about 16 feet. In levelling the mound the earth was found to
contain articles which tend to show the existence of a
“kjókkenmödding.”
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 6.—Passage grave on Axvalla heath, near Lake Venern,
Vestergötland, Sweden, situated on a hill overlooking a flat
country. Numerous graves belonging to that period are found in the
neighbourhood.
The walls are made by large slabs, those in the passage being lower
than the slabs of the quadrangle. The roof is of flat slabs of
granite, 5 to 6 feet above the floor, a similar one serving as a
door, closing the outer end of the passage, which is 20 feet long,
and 2½ to 3 feet broad, and 3 feet high. The mortuary itself (the
quadrangle) is 32 feet long by 9 feet broad.
_The dead sit along the walls_, young and old, men and women, the chin
resting in both hands, with their legs drawn up. Thin slabs form the
cells round each skeleton, and are about 3 feet high, consequently
do not reach the roof. Arrow points, knives, etc., of flintstone,
are found with the men, pieces of amber with the women.
Numbers of similar graves are found in Sweden and Denmark, a single
grave sometimes containing nearly one hundred bodies.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 7.—Plan of above grave.
]
Gallery or passage graves consisted of a chamber and a narrow gallery
leading into it, the whole being covered by a mound, the base of which
was generally surrounded by a circle of larger or smaller stones.
[Illustration:
Fig. 8.—Passage grave near Karleby—front view; length of the main
gallery, covered by nine large stones, 52 feet; width, 7 feet;
length of passage, 40 feet; height, 6 feet.
]
The chamber in a passage grave is either oblong, square, oval, or nearly
round; the walls are formed by large upright blocks, not quite smooth,
though even on the inside; the interstices are generally carefully
filled up with gravel or fragments of stone, and birch bark is sometimes
found between the blocks. The roof was formed by immense flat slabs or
blocks, smooth on the under side, but rough on the top, the interstices
being closed in the same manner as those in the walls. The floor is
sometimes covered with small flat stones, but usually with earth. On the
long side of the chamber there is an opening, from which a passage was
built in the same manner as the chamber, only longer and narrower. This
passage, or more precisely its inner part, was covered with blocks
resembling the roof blocks of the chamber, but smaller; near the inner
opening of the passage, and the outer end of its covered part a kind of
door setting has been often found, consisting of a stone threshold and
two narrow doorposts.
[Illustration:
Fig. 9.—Side view of passage grave near Karleby.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 10.—Ground-plan of passage grave near Karleby.
The irregular lines show the position of the slabs covering the grave.
]
The passage graves vary much in size. The length of the chamber is
generally from 11½ to 23 feet, its width from 5 to 10 feet; height from
3½ to 4½ feet. The passage is often as long as the chamber, or even
longer, and its width is from 2 to 4 feet, and height from 3 to 5 feet.
But some are much larger, and are called giants’ graves. One of the
largest of these graves is that of Karleby, near Falköping,
Vestergötland, in Sweden, where a great number of the graves of the
stone age have been found.
[Illustration:
Fig. 11.—Stone coffin (hällkista) near Skattened, in Södra Ryrs
parish, Vestergötland, 21¼ feet in length. Graves of this type are
very numerous in Bohuslan also, and in Dal and south-western
Vermland.
]
This grave[112] was found under a large but not very deep mound, and is
divided into a large chamber and two smaller ones, separated by stone
slabs.
In it were remains of sixty skeletons, and by their side a large number
of poniards, spear-points, arrow-heads, and other objects of flint and
stone, showing that the grave belonged to the period when stone
implements were still in use; but among the skeletons in the lower part
of the grave a couple of bronze beads and a bronze spear-point were
found.
[Illustration:
Fig. 12.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 13.—Plan of above Mound.
Mound, Broholm. Sepulchral chamber made of boulders, with short
passage leading to it. Stones from 4 feet 15 inches to 4 feet high,
and 2½ to 4 feet wide; inside of the chamber 9 feet wide. Only four
stones remain of the passage leading to the chamber, which is about
2 feet wide, and turns south-west. The space between the boulders is
filled with small stones. In the chamber were charcoal and different
things. To the left of the entrance lay remains of two skulls close
to each other; and spread in every direction were daggers, blades,
and points of spears, points of arrows, numerous amber beads, a
necklace of amber, four clay vessels, and fragments of others, &c.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 14.—Entrance to passage grave at Uby, Holbæk amt, Denmark.
Diameter 100 feet, height 14 feet. The length of the chamber is 13½
feet, width 7½ feet, height 7½ feet. Entrance towards the south
passage is 18 feet long, 2½ feet wide, and 5½ feet high. There were
found in the passage many human bones and several flint implements
and three small clay urns.
]
The isolated stone coffins were formed of flat upright stones, and were
four-sided, though the two longer sides were not parallel, thus making
the coffin narrower at one end than at the other. Most of them were
probably covered with one or more stones; and although these have in
many places long ago been destroyed or removed, they are sometimes still
found in their place. The direction of these coffins is almost always
from north to south, and they are generally surrounded by a mound of
stones of more or less stone-mixed earth. This form of grave was
probably the outcome of the omission of the passage. Several
intermediate forms have been found, showing how the passage was
gradually lessened until it can only be traced in the opening which
narrows at the south end of the coffin.
[Illustration:
Fig. 15.—Interior of the passage grave at Uby. The spaces between the
large stones filled with pebbles. The roof is formed by two large
stones which have been cut from a large block.
]
The length of the stone coffin was generally from 8 to 13½ feet, width
from 3 to 5 feet, height from 2½ to 5 feet. A few, especially in
Vestergötland, are from 19½ to 31 feet in length, one of the longest
graves of this kind in Sweden being one on Stora Lundskulla, in
Vestergötland, with a length of 34 feet, and width of 8 feet. Nearly all
other stone coffins found are, like the gallery graves, without a stone
at the southern end. This cannot be accidental.
Besides the stone coffin above described, several have been found
covered with a mound. The chambers are generally formed of upright flat
stones, and roofed also with stones. They are generally smaller than the
stone coffins, being from 6 to 10 feet long, and closed on all four
sides; sometimes, however, there is found in the southern end an opening
as previously mentioned.
POTTERY.
[Illustration:
Fig. 16.—Clay urn—Stone age—⅓ real size. In passage grave, Stege,
island of Möen, Baltic, found with remains of some skeletons. Two
stone axes, a flint saw, 2 arrow-points, 3 spear-heads, fragments of
clay vessels with covers, pieces of a wooden tub, 2 awls of bone, a
chisel of bone, 3 flint wedges, 2 flat scrapers of flint, and 17
amber beads for necklace were also found in the grave. The same
mound was afterwards used for burials belonging to the bronze age,
with cinerary urns with burned bones, on the top of which was a
double-edged bronze knife, &c.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 17.—Amber-beads forming a necklace found in the grave with the
clay urn.
The same mound was afterwards used for burial belonging to the bronze
age; near the top, and entirely separate from the burial-chambers,
there was discovered a very small stone coffin containing an urn
with burnt bones, and on these lay a fine double-edged knife, a
knife, and a pair of pincers, all of bronze.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 18.—Clay vessel found near Fredericia, Jutland. ⅓ real size.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 19.—Clay urn. Stone age grave, with flint weapons and
amber-beads. ⅓ real size. Island of Möen.
]
POTTERY OF THE STONE AGE.
[Illustration:
Fig. 20.—Necklace of amber beads found with other amber beads and
ornaments, altogether about 2,500, in a bog at the hamlet of Lœsten,
Viborg amt, Jutland. ¼ real size.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 21.—Clay vessel which had a top, Stone age. ⅓ real size.—Möen.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 22.—Stone axes, of the form of some bronze axes. Several
specimens in the Copenhagen Museum. ⅓ real size.—Fyen.
The two axes in this page are given on account of their peculiar form,
similar
to that of the bronze age. Many other forms of weapons will be found
illustrated in ‘The Land of the Midnight Sun.’
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 23.—Clay vessel found in a burial chamber with flint implements
and other objects near Aalborg, Denmark. ⅓ real size.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 24.—Clay vessel found in a large passage grave, with flint, and
other implements, near Haderslev, Slesvig. ⅓ real size.
]